Behind These Walls
by Nine1
Summary: Behind the walls of the hotel rooms at each tournament, teammates bond and form stronger friendships. A two-part story. Shounen-ai warning for the second part.
1. Part 1

A/N: I've listened to Radiohead's "high and dry" about seven times by now, and I can't get this mental image out of my head of what I'd imagine it must be like while the White Tigers (minus Ray, of course) wait around in their hotel rooms as the tournament day draws near. I don't know why, but Mariah, Li, Kevin, Gary, and Bruce have always been such interesting characters for me, and since the first time I saw them, I fell in love with them. They seem so _loyal_ to each other, like they are and always have been the best of friends. Anyways, this would be a great fic to read while listening to "high and dry", which is the song they're listening to in this fic, even though I don't say it, and one of the most calming songs I've ever heard. Basically, this is packed with White Tiger fluff. XD Love it, live it.

Notes: I chose to use their American dub names because I don't know their names in the Japanese sub. Oh, the shame. Another thing, this is in Li's POV. 

It's a beautiful midday afternoon, and we're inside, waiting for it to rain. 

Radiohead plays in the background, providing a peaceful atmosphere in the hotel room we're in. We're all anxious about the upcoming tournament, and we're doing our best not to show it. 

Mariah is dancing in her white nightgown, dancing all around the room, pausing to stand on the bed and twirl around, arms above her head, waist-length pink hair flying all around her, and I wonder if she knows how beautiful she looks. As she passes in front of the window, the shadowed outline of her body can be seen through her nightgown, and I look back down to the floor, smiling. 

Gary is singing to himself, along with the music. No one besides the five of us - and Ray, of course - knows how good he can sing. With such a gruff speaking voice, it came as a surprise when we found out about his hidden talent in singing. He's pretty shy about it, so he doesn't sing in front of anyone besides us. 

Kevin is watching TV, occasionally telling Mariah to stop dancing in front of his view of the screen, but we all know that he doesn't really care whether she's in the way or not. I look up at him and see he's watching her dance, and he's smiling such a gentle smile that I can hardly believe he can act so tough around other people. His soft green hair is falling over one eye, as usual, and his visible light purple eye is glittering in the light falling through the window and playing about his face. 

Brucey is sitting on the edge of the bed, legs crossed, reading a book. He's always been a very quiet one. Mariah passes in front of him and her nightgown brushes over the top of his book. He glances up at her and blushes, then lifts the book in front of his face to hide it. I stifle a small laugh. 

I'm sitting with my back to one of the walls, legs drawn up in front of me, hands resting on my knees, relaxing and trying not to think of the tournament. This is our first long break in a while. We've been practicing way too much lately. I ought to do this a little more often, but I get so worried about our performances in the tournament that sometimes I fail to see that we need to take care of ourselves as well as our Beyblades. 

So for the time being, we can relax in each other's company. Suddenly Kevin turns to the window and reaches a hand out to touch it. He shakes his hair from his face and for once I can see both of his eyes. He's grinning, mouth open.

"Hey, guys! Guys, it's started raining!"

We all leap to our feet - well, Mariah was already on her feet, but the rest of us do - and run out the door of the hotel room. Outside, sure enough, the rain is starting to fall down in a gentle pitter-patter on the red brick ground. Mariah chooses not to go out into the rain, since her nightgown is white and all, but Kevin runs right out into the middle of it, arms spread out and mouth open, head tilted back to face the sky. 

Gary turns to me and says, in his deep, booming voice, "Isn't it great, Li?"

I cross my arms over my chest - always the practical leader - and laugh. "Yeah, it's great, Gary."

~ ~ ~ ~

"It's the best thing that you ever had. . ." - Radiohead, "high and dry"


	2. Part 2

A/N: Well, I've had a very crappy day, so of course I wrote this incredibly fluffy companion fic to my White Tigers fluffy one, and decided to make it a second chapter, even though they are both meant to be one-shots. This one is much longer than the other one, but at one point it sort of blends in with the other one. I realize that some characters may be OOC, but it just fits the story better this way. Now, this is what goes on in the hotel room of our heroes, the Bladebreakers. 

Note: This fic contains implied Tyson/Max and Ray/Kai. That's shounen-ai, to those of you who might not know what I'm talking about. Boy x boy love. Ah, you get it. It's in Kenny's POV. Yes, I'm still using the dub names, since I thought it would go better with the first story.

It's started raining outside of the hotel room. I sit up in bed and rub my eyes, glancing at the window. I wonder what time it is, but Tyson answers for me before I can check.

"Seven o' clock in the morning, you stupid rain, and you decide _now's_ the time to wake me?!"

He throws a pillow at the window and Max laughs, sitting up in his bed. 

"You tell it, Tyson!"

"Would you two shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep," Kai grumbles from under his pillow.

I'm probably the only person who was able to tell what he said - I'm sleeping in the bed next to his - but Tyson and Max know him well enough to know that whatever he said was mean.

"What a grouch!" Tyson says loudly. I half-expect Kai to reach a hand up from under the sheets to flip him off, but he must be too sleepy to bother. 

"Oh, come on, Kai," Ray says softly. He's still lying on his bed, but he's awake and now looking over me at the back of Kai's blue-haired head. "He's just being himself."

"I know," Kai grumbles again, trying to dig his head further into his bed to rid himself of the voices of the crazy people - i.e. Tyson and Max. 

Ray laughs and shakes his head, rolling over to rest his head on his arm and shift his body. Really, sometimes that guy seems a little girly - though not as girly as Max can be sometimes. 

"Hey, Chief!" Tyson calls over to me. 

"What, Tyson?" I ask tiredly. 

"Have you fixed my Beyblade yet?"

"I haven't had time to work on it."

"Aw, why not?"

"I've been busy with Max's. It's still recovering from being dropped into the bathtub." 

Max blushes slightly, grinning sheepishly. "That was an honest mistake. It was Tyson's fault, anyways."

"What was Tyson doing in the bathtub, too?"

They both blush this time, and they look at each other briefly before shrugging at me. 

"Don't ask," they chime together.

"Oh, don't worry, I don't want to know," I assure them. I roll my eyes. 

Ray bursts out laughing and soon is hysterical, pounding his fist against the bed. He does that sometimes, though at the oddest moments . . . 

Kai finally sits up, making some sort of animal growl. He grabs his pillow and launches it at the nearest person - of course, that would be me. I get hit smack in the face and my goggles press hard against my forehead. That's going to leave a mark. (No, I don't sleep with my goggles on, but I put them on as soon as I wake up.)

"SHUT UP!" Kai screams. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Kai's finally gone insane!" Tyson crows. "We've finally broken him!" 

He reaches over the side of his bed to high-five Max, who leans out too far and falls off of the bed and in between his and Tyson's mattresses. 

Ray crawls over my bed and sits on Kai's, reaching both hands out to grab the screaming one's arms to try to calm him down. Max is whining for someone to get him out and Tyson hurriedly begins yanking on his arms, trying to free the frantic blonde.

As all of this drama unfurls, I use the opportunity to grab the remote control and turn the TV on, trying to find the technology channel. They usually never let me watch it, because it is "the most boring crap I've ever seen or heard!," according to Tyson. Everyone, of course, agrees with him, though sometimes Ray will suffer through it with me so I don't get too down about it. I don't know why the White Tigers would call him a traitor so often - he's the nicest guy I've ever met, that's for sure. He was a little cocky the very first time we met him, but after that, we were always good friends.

"Hey, Kenny, don't tell me you're watching that technology crap again!" Tyson calls out to me once Max is safely sitting on the bed once again. Max crosses his arms and pouts at the crack between the two beds. Tyson reaches a hand out to ruffle his hair and Max swats at his arm. 

"I'll change the channel if you want me to, Tyson," I say, holding the remote up to the TV to show I mean it. 

"No, it's okay," he sighs. "I wanted to go outside and check out the rain, anyways. Is it still raining?"

He gets up from the bed and walks over to peer out the window. Max follows him, bouncing with every step and obviously over the bed incident. 

I turn to look at Ray and Kai. Kai is sleeping again, arms hugging his pillow and face looking more peaceful that it has been in a long, long time. Ray is staring down at him almost affectionately, twisting a blue lock of hair in between his fingers. 

I decide to give them a little privacy and turn the TV off, going to stand with Tyson and Max. 

"Yes, I knew it had to still be raining!" Tyson says happily. He immediately heads to the door, twisting the knob and shoving at it. When it doesn't open, he pouts and throws his body against it. Max patiently reaches around him and pulls the door open. Tyson doesn't even blink or look embarrassed, he just thanks Max and runs outside. Max shakes his head, laughing, and runs out after him.

I close the door after us and notice that they've stopped in their tracks, a few steps from the door, and are staring at something towards the right. I look around them and see that the White Tigers are standing outside of _their_ hotel room, staring back at us and looking as surprised as we probably look.

Well, all of them except for the short, green-haired one, who is obliviously running around in the rain and laughing to himself. As soon as he sees us standing there, he stops and gawks at us, then runs back to stand with the others, his tough mask back on his face. Really, he is such a weird kid.

"What are _you_ looking at?" he sneers at us. Their leader, Li or something like that, turns to give him a look. 

The green-haired one, whose name I now remember as Kevin, looks down at the floor, almost ashamed. He looks up at us again, narrowing his eyes.

"You didn't see anything out here, okay?"

He means the bit about him running around like his monkey bit-beast, laughing crazily and getting soaking wet. 

"Right, we saw nothing," Tyson agrees. 

"Okay," Kevin says, nodding. They all hurriedly turn to go back inside of their hotel room.

We do the same, only we take longer because Tyson spends half of the time trying to pull the door open when you're supposed to push it. I begin to wonder if he has a sort of problem with opening doors. 

We stumble back into our hotel room. Ray and Kai are cuddling on the bed. As soon as Kai looks up to see us, he gets so freaked out that he shoves Ray off of the bed. I hear Ray say, "Ow" from somewhere on the floor.

"You saw nothing here," Kai warns us coldly. Then he peeks over the side of his bed and mumbles a "Sorry" to Ray.

"Geez, we really didn't see anything today, did we?" Tyson asks edgily.

"What are you talking about now?" Kai asks, exasperated with him.

"Nothing at all," Max responds, grinning. "We're going to get breakfast now."

And with that, Tyson and I are yanked out of the hotel room and to the lobby, or wherever they are serving breakfast in this place.

As I walk alongside two of my best friends, I can't help but feel that today is going to be as wacky as ever, and I'm so completely glad that nothing will ever change between us. 

~ ~ ~ ~  


"Two jumps in a week, I bet you think that's pretty clever, don't you boy?

Flying on your motorcycle, watching all the ground beneath you drop." - Radiohead, "high and dry"


End file.
